Chapter Forty-Two: Stefanie Salvatore
Present day
Border of NC and VA
It was nearing midnight when Gabe and Zakariah left the Halfway House with Dimitri because Phoenix wouldn't stop complaining about being hungry. Not that it was going to be easy to remove a ward from a hospital and stock up on blood bags at night, but Gabe knew he was also going to need them now that he was back together with Winifred. He guessed hundreds of years hadn't changed her opinion on him feeding on humans.
While they waited, Winifred continued to repair her relationship with Ava, and Stef continued to interrogate Raid on the phone conversation with her father.
"So you didn't mention anything about vampires?" she checked, standing close to him, resting one elbow on the counter. She didn't suspect he had, given her father hadn't exploded over the phone, but she'd already asked a hundred questions and she still wasn't any closer to finding out why Raid was now acting like her father was his new BFF and potential golfing buddy. She didn't have the heart to tell him that her dad's golfing buddy was already Alaric.
"Of course not," Raid confirmed from the seat next to her.
"Or witches?"
"No."
"Or werewolves?"
Raid's head spun towards her. "There are werewolves?"
Stef shrugged. "Sometimes. They keep to their packs."
"So werewolves have packs... witches have covens... what do vampires have?"
"Alcohol," Phoenix answered, tipping back his drink next to him. He slammed the empty glass down on the counter. "When's the take-out getting here? I'm so ready to leave."
"You're not leaving until Stef makes peace with the Coven," Gideon replied, "particularly Cristian. Calling a truce means nothing unless you prove it can work."
"You want me to forget everything he's done?" Stef shot. "I watched a man die because of him. He killed –"
"A drug dealer," Gideon finished, silencing her. "Lyle was a drug dealer, ruining lives daily and only an overdose away from killing someone himself. Don't act like you're going to mourn him." When Stef resentfully gave him a conceding huff, he turned in the direction of where Cristian was standing across the room and gestured for his attention via a nearby witch. Cristian then responded with a nod of acknowledgement as Gideon waved him over, but continued a conversation with a member of his Coven, in no hurry to jump to his request.
Raid could tell Stef was dreading it. She stared towards Cristian, her jaw set, her nails pressing into her palm, as he slyly smirked at her between breaks in his conversation. Then, when Cristian finally started heading over, she suddenly placed a tense hand over Raid's forearm. Somehow, she needed him right now, whether it was for comfort, security, or just to stop her from slapping the shit out of the guy again. Raid's heart sank. In the state he was in now, Raid had never felt more useless.
"Would more vampire blood help me sober up?" he whispered to Phoenix. The whispering didn't matter; Stef still heard, a look of surprise spreading across her face.
"Not how it works," Phoenix replied. "If it's already in your system when you start drinking then you won't feel the effects of alcohol for a while, but it doesn't sober you up once you're drunk. You'd be better off using one of the bathrooms in this place to take a freezing cold shower – get a burst of adrenaline in you."
"The adrenaline would wear off before it made enough of a difference," Stef countered. "Though another dose of vampire blood might speed the elimination process up during that time."
Phoenix shrugged. "Could be worth a shot."
Stef watched Raid lower his eyes, rotating a bottle of water around in his cupped palms, deep in thought. He didn't know how to answer. On the one hand, it seemed he wanted to try this. On the other hand, the risk of the feeding bond meant he was still going to reject her blood. Stef knew she had to get past this – to accept that it didn't mean he was rejecting her. She pushed an empty glass in front of Raid, telling him to have some of Phoenix's blood. His evident relief stung a little, but she had to respect his wishes. She took an empty glass bottle and shattered it on the counter, picking up its largest and sharpest shard.
"Whoa," Cristian said as he approached, holding up both of his palms in peace. "Remember the rules."
"This isn't for you," Stef said, wishing it was. She passed the shard to Phoenix, who cut his palm and held it over the short tumbler for Raid to drink from.
"You getting a taste for blood, Vaziri?" Cristian commented. "You've been hanging around vampires too long. There's a spot open in the Coven if you'd prefer to join your own kind."
"I'd rather be turned into a vampire than join you," Raid grunted, tipping the shot of blood down his throat. His face scrunched up in disgust. The taste of blood didn't hit quite the same when it wasn't Stef's. He had to get the taste out of his mouth. He reached for a bottle of bourbon, poured a small shot into the same glass, and knocked it back.
"That's counter-productive as well as a little offensive," Phoenix grumbled admonishingly at Raid's reaction.
"Join me in a duel of magic instead then," Cristian suggested to Raid. "Let's see if you even have what it takes to be a proper witch."
Stef's hand was placed over Raid's the second he tensed at the insult. Luckily, Gideon was immediately on Cristian's case for goading him. Raid was in no state to duel, but perhaps a duel would be perfect for giving him the adrenaline shot he needed for the vampire blood to sober him up. It just wasn't going to be him against Cristian.
"I'll duel with you," Stef offered to Cristian. She knew Cristian had Splits with Gideon, it would be a difficult match to win, but not impossible. Except she didn't intend to win. "What better way for us to bond than with a bit of friendly competition?" The word 'bond' nearly stuck in her throat. This wasn't about bonding. She would put on a show by joining the witches in their stupid game, they would be pleased at her losing, the surprise of it might offer Raid a quick recovery, and then they could finally leave. The duel wasn't brutal anyway. Contenders placed their hands a foot apart and used magic to push the other to the ground. The amount of force used was short and sharp, little more than a paranormal arm wrestle.
"Excellent idea!" Gideon exclaimed, slapping his palms together.
An expression of annoyance spread over Cristian's face. He had wanted to humiliate Raid and him being drunk would have made that extra easy. It didn't take a genius to recognize that he had feelings for Stef, so Cristian needed to take him down a notch to show Stef that Raid wasn't worthy of her, to prevent her from ever feeling the same way about him. Not that a duel against Stef wouldn't be a fine opportunity to provoke her into breaking the truce. As soon as she did, Gideon would be able to rid her of her vampirism using the piece of the talisman now in his possession. But Cristian needed another witch to provoke her. He wasn't willing to risk losing his own magic if she retaliated. He'd have to go easy on her during the duel.
"Very well," Cristian agreed begrudgingly.
Raid grabbed Stef by the arm as she started to head towards the other end of the room with Cristian. He knew he shouldn't be holding her back. He knew he should be listening to all the advice Phoenix gave him about trusting her to handle herself. But he couldn't help how he felt. "Stef, I don't like this," he pleaded. "Let me duel instead."
Stef took a step back towards him, her hands reaching up to either side of his face tenderly, bringing her forehead against his. "I'll be okay," she promised. Then, when Raid released her arm, submitting to her wishes, she smiled and did something neither of them were expecting: she slid one hand from his face and kissed him on the cheek.
Both their eyes closed. It was long, lingering. A kiss to demonstrate her deep affection for him.
And it severely pissed Cristian off.
To hell with the risk to his magic. He was not going to go easy on her. He was not going to let Raid have her. Let her destroy the truce and his magic with it. As soon as her vampirism was removed, the prophecy would end, and she would realize who the better man was.
Cristian grabbed Stef by the hand, pulling her away from Raid and across the room. "It's bad sportsmanship to rattle a witch before a duel, Stefanie," he hissed at her.
Stef yanked her arm away – appreciating how she could effortlessly remove herself from his grip using her vampire strength – but continued to follow him until they reached the clearing where the duel would take place, and then faced each other. "Then you're too easily rattled, Cristian," she accused.
As others gathered to watch, Stef raised her arm, held her palm outwards, and Cristian did the same. There was no more than a foot between their hands. Right before his count down from three, she spotted an evil glint in his eyes.
"Three... two... one..."
The soles of Stef's shoes skidded backwards until they were now six feet apart. The blast of power emitted by Cristian was far greater than she expected – far greater than the rules allowed – and now she was forced to push back with all her magic to defend herself. There was no chance of letting him win; he would propel her across the room. Bones would break. Her neck might break. Zakariah wasn't here. Gabe wasn't here. Without her, there would be far too many witches against only three vampires... and Cristian still had half of Gideon's powers.
The adrenaline was already flying through Raid's system as all of Stef's friends ran to join the crowd.
"Cristian, draw back!" Gideon demanded, pushing his way to the front. "You know you're not suppose to use that much power!"
Cristian eased up a little, just enough for Stef to recover from the surprise. But as soon as her powers started growing, started overpowering his, he pushed back again. "See! She can hold her own, Gideon," Cristian yelled. "Let's see what she can take." He increased his powers again, waves of glowing sparks flowing violently in the air between them.
If it weren't for that visual, Cristian would have been right. Despite the additional powers he had gained from Gideon, Stef had been able to feel herself slowly pushing back against him, defeating him inch by inch.
But the waves... the sparks... the colours... all rotating in front of her, now blending into a ripple of silver and amethyst. Whether it was her imagination or a manipulation of Cristian's powers, she didn't know. But it couldn't be him doing this. He didn't know what she'd witnessed. How could he know? It was her mind – her fear – that the magic was going to get out of control and kill almost every witch in the room just as she had seen happen in 1515 in the Hanging Fields.
Her focus was slipping. Her grip on the floor was slipping.
No, it wasn't real! She needed to concentrate on her magic.
She could see swirls of silver and amethyst spiralling around Cristian's wrist. Blinked and it was gone. Blinked and it was further along his arm.
She'd seen this happen to Zaif right before he killed everyone.
Real or not? Real or not? Was this real or not?
It didn't matter. She couldn't take the risk.
She withdrew her powers.
And Cristian's magic blasted her across the room.
Stef was standing one second and crumpled on the floor the next. To her awareness there were no events in between. She didn't feel herself crashing through the slatted wooden panels that divided the open floor from the entrance area. She didn't feel herself hitting the wall behind it and falling to the ground. She didn't even feel the long, broken panel of wood now embedded beneath her chest.
But she did hear Raid scream her name as he ran towards her.
There was a silver lining: at least that meant she was conscious.
She yanked the triangular wooden shard from her body – a motion that hurt more than being embedded with it in the first place. She threw it aside just as Raid crouched down beside her, repeating her name over and over like he was terrified he would never get to say it to her again.
"Please be okay, Stef, please tell me you're okay," he begged, his hand stroking her face, tears gathering in his eyes. "I thought he had killed you."
The rest of Stef's friends stood behind Raid, with Flick – being the most traumatized by this kind of violence – covering her eyes from the blood by burying her face into Phoenix's shoulder.
"I'm okay," Stef groaned, pushing herself upright as the wound started to heal. She wasn't about to admit that a ridiculous flashback hallucination had caused this. She would have beaten Cristian otherwise. "What nearly got me killed was these damn shoes Gideon put me in." Neither the pain nor the irritatingly huge skirt allowed her to reach down to remove them, so she instead kicked the heeled shoes off her feet. She then noticed Raid's steady movements and balance, remembered the clarity of his words. "The things I have to go through to sober you up," she chuckled weakly.
Raid didn't laugh with her. "Fuck, I want to kill him!" he snapped, running his hand over her hair. "I nearly lost you. Please never take him on again, Stef, please."
Stef reached up, taking his hand from her and gripping it tightly in her own. "I won't," she agreed. He was less vulnerable than she was now. She had to turn off her protection mode. She had to let him have his moment. "But you will."
Then she forced her magic into him – all of it – until she was left with nothing but her vampire powers. He was receptive to everything she gave him now. She never felt him push her powers away. He couldn't. She needed this win, and he knew it.
"Now go kick his ass," she told him.
